Ranji Trophy: Manish Pandey's double ton hoists Karnataka

Last updated on: November 18, 2011 21:14 IST

Manish Pandey struck an unbeaten maiden double century after resuming his cramps-interrupted innings on 101 on Friday morning, and Amit Verma scored 173, to put Karnataka in command against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match in Mumbai.

Pandey was unconquered on exactly 200, after a stay of 321 minutes, during which he struck 23 fours and a six, after which Karnataka declared their first innings closed at a mammoth 635 for 9, 25 minutes after tea on day two of the four-day match.

In reply, Mumbai were three for one, following the dismissal of captain Wasim Jaffer for a duck in the first over, before recovering to end the day on 37 for one in 12 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane, drafted into the home team after being released from the Indian Test squad to play the match, was unbeaten on 23, while Abhishek Nayar -- who had scored a double century in Mumbai's game against Rajasthan -- was the other not out batsman on 14.

The 39-time champions needed 399 more runs to avoid following-on and are 598 runs short of Karnataka's imposing first innings total on a wicket that is still playing true.

The major part of the day was spent by Mumbai chasing leather after Karnataka resumed their innings at the overnight total of 316 for five, with left-hand batsman Verma (41) and captain Vinay Kumar (21) on strike.

Mumbai captured the wicket of the visiting team skipper in the 29th over of the morning when Ramesh Powar bowled him off a defensive shot for 57 after which Verma and Pandey, who had retired to the dressing room on Thursday before tea after scoring his first hundred runs, took centre stage.

The seventh wicket duo put on 167 runs in 178 balls to boost Karnataka's score close to the 550-run mark.

Verma, who had compiled his century in 210 balls after being let off early in the innings, was finally deceived in flight by a well-tossed up ball by Powar who had him stumped.

He faced 275 balls in his 372-minute knock and hit 18 fours and three sixes. He had put on a century stand with captain Vinay Kumar too for the sixth wicket.

Spinners Iqbal Abdulla (2 for 130), Powar (2 for 150) and Chavan (3 for 115) were expensive but took the majority of wickets for Mumbai.

The visitors, who were level at nine points with Mumbai going into the tie, struck a big blow to the hosts' hopes of matching them in the first innings by sending back Jaffer for no score. The India discard misread the swing from Vinay Kumar, and offered no stroke to a ball that came in and rapped him on pads, and was leg before.

Rahane, who was in the India reserves for the first two Tests against the West Indies, looked confident along with the left-handed Nayar and Mumbai's hopes rest largely on this duo and the in-form Rohit Sharma.

Biplab Samantray made a career-best 171 while Abhilash Mallick fell one short of his maiden ton as Orissa were bowled out for 482 in their first innings on the second day of the Elite division match against Uttar Pradesh in Sambalpur, Orissa.

In reply, UP were 54 for one at close of play, with Tanmay Srivastava (35) and Mohammad Kaif (14) unbeaten.

Tamil Nadu rode on a gutsy half-century from India's reserve opener Abhinav Mukund to take a vital 69-run first-innings lead against Delhi on the second day of their third round Elite Group match at the Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi.

Mukund returned to the dressing room unbeaten on 89, while Jagannath Kaushik was on eight, as Tamil Nadu finished the day on 281 for 8, on a treacherous Kotla wicket.

Earlier in the day, when the visitors were 69 for 3, a ball from left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan nastily shot up from a good length spot and broke the wiser of Mukund's helmet. The batsman was in unbearable pain and play was stopped for about five to seven minutes before the opener walked out of the field with a bruised jaw.

Mukund, however, returned to crease at the fall of the sixth wicket and manfully shouldered the burden of Tamil Nadu's innings, reaching his individual 50 and also taking the visitors past Delhi's total of 212 runs.

Mukund faced 157 balls during his 253-minute stay at the wicket while hitting 15 boundaries.

Ramaswamy Prasanna, who scored 59 off 107 balls with 10 fours, and Yo Mahesh (47 off 138; 8x4), were the other notable contributors for Tamil Nadu.

Out-of-favour India pacer Ashish Nehra, who was drafted into the Delhi team after the innings defeat to Gujarat, bowled a good first spell as he almost got Murali Vijay out with an in-swinging

delivery, but umpire Amish Sahiba ruled in favour of the batsman.

Vijay

though didn't last long as a shooter from Nehra had him trapped in front of the wicket.

The veteran bowler was on hat-trick as he got rid of Arun Kartik with the very next ball, leaving Tamil Nadu struggling at 35

for two.

Nehra ended the day with figures of two for 70 in 18

overs.

Brief Scores:

Delhi 212 (U Chand 86, Y Nagar 51; L Balaji 3-42, R Srinivas 3-48)

Tamil Nadu 281-8 (A Mukund batting 89, R Prasanna 58; A Nehra 2-70)

Vahora's five-wicket haul leads Baroda fightback

Pacer Murtuja Vahora scalped four wickets to complete a five-wicket

haul as Baroda fought back on the second day of their Elite Division match against Haryana in Vadodara.

Vahora (5-78) and left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh (3-42) put the brakes on Haryana, who resumed the day on 281 for three, and grabbed the remaining seven wickets for 109 runs to bundle out the visitors for 390.

Haryana's first innings could have ended much earlier but for opener Rahul Dewan, who scored a patient 164 from 348 balls, studded with 23 fours, and Yuzvendra Chahal's 38

down the order.

Dewan, who resumed the day on 131, and Chahal shared 43

runs for the eighth wicket before the former got out.

In reply, Baroda were 104 for one, trailing by 286

runs with nine first innings wickets in hand.

Aditya Waghmode and Rakesh Solanki were batting on 51 and 44,

respectively when the stumps were drawn at Moti Bagh Stadium.

The duo scored 95 runs together for the unfinished second wicket stand after Baroda lost opening batsman Kedar Devdhar for a duck with the team total on nine in 3.2

overs.

Going

into this Group B match, Baroda had secured seven points from one win and a draw, while Haryana had two points from two draws.